Perfect.
I would like to add to what Mr. Barry said earlier. I think the problem in Manitoba is something we see right across the country.
I am fortunate to chair the Regroupement national des directions générales de l’éducation au Canada, a national association of school boards. All the provinces have the same problem. You went to British Columbia, and I imagine you heard the same challenges. It is the same thing in Alberta. You will hear the same thing from east to west.
We talked about the Official Languages Act earlier. This act also needs to be given some teeth so it can be enforced and to provide for recourse. Right now, little recourse is available. Should we have recourse to the courts to enforce this act? Strengthening the act is basic, in our opinion.
Second, subsections 23(2) and 23(3) of the charter must be recognized by giving francophones greater recognition in the census. That would provide for a larger francophonie and allow French-language schools to grow. Right now, we have to fight the provincial ministries for recognition of rights holders in locations where we do not have any schools. Yet the solution is simple for anglophones. A new subdivision is built. When children and families move in, an English-language school is built. Those children are probably the children of rights holders, but they will go to an English-language school. So we are losing out there.
The third thing is federal spaces. The federal government gives us money to build daycare centres in our schools or to build spaces. The number of students is rising steadily, but the province gives us minimal infrastructure, that is, a very small school. In most cases, in all the provinces where French-language schools have been built, they were overcrowded even before they opened. What goes by the wayside? It is the daycare centre. There is growth in daycare centres, but we cannot give them any more space in our schools. Where do those children go then? They end up in English-language daycare centres, in anglophone communities, and then make anglophone friends at English-language schools.
The Official Languages Act has to be given some teeth.